Selma Des Coudres (born Selma Plawneek (); 2 January 1883,

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

— 4 March 1956,

Fürstenfeldbruck Fürstenfeldbruck () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, 32 kilometres west of Munich. It is the capital of the district of Fürstenfeldbruck. it had a population of 35,494. Since the 1930s Fürstenfeldbruck has had an air force base. Geography F ...

) was a Latvian-born German painter. Her style mixes elements of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

and

Japonism ''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japon ...

Biography

Her father was a wood and lumber wholesaler. He died in 1891, shortly after a disastrous fire destroyed all his possessions. Her mother had received drawing lessons as a girl, and encouraged Selma in her plans to become an artist.Eva von Seckendorff: "Selma Des Coudres, geb. Plawneek – Eine Malerin zwischen Riga und Fürstenfeldbruck". In: Angelika Mundorff, Eva von Seckendorff (Eds.): ''Selma und Adolf Des Coudres. Ein ungleiches Künstlerpaar.'' Exhibition catalog, Museum Fürstenfeldbruck, 2014 . SDC Isar

She enrolled in the private painting school operated by the

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

painter, Elise Jung-Stilling. In 1903, the

Imperial Academy of Arts The Imperial Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by Ivan Shuvalov, the founder of the Imperial Moscow University, under the name ''Academy of th ...

awarded her a diploma that enabled her to become a teacher in a middle school for girls. While teaching, she also took private lessons from

Janis Rozentāls Janis Rozentāls (March 18, 1866 – December 26, 1916) was a Latvian people, Latvian painter. Life Rozentāls was born in Bebri Farmstead, Saldus parish, Courland Governorate in the Russian Empire. He was the son of a blacksmith. He recei ...

and studied landscape painting with

Vilhelms Purvītis Vilhelms Purvītis (3 March 1872 – 14 January 1945) was a landscape painter and educator who founded the Latvian Academy of Art and was its rector from 1919 to 1934. Biography Vilhems Purvītis was born in Zaube Parish (now Cēsis Munici ...

. Her first work was as an illustrator; providing drawings in the Art Nouveau style for ''Kiefern im Schnee'' (Pines in the Snow), a collection of poetry and fairy tales. From 1908 to 1912, she regularly provided illustrations for the ''Jahrbuch für bildende Kunst in den Ostseeprovinzen''. She also participated in several exhibits at the Rigaer Kunstverein and the new

Latvian National Museum of Art The Latvian National Museum of Art () is an art museum in Riga, Latvia. It contains the largest collection of national art in Latvia. The museum houses more than 65,000 works of art reflecting the development of professional art in the Baltic a ...

. The museum's Director,

Wilhelm Neumann Carl Johann Wilhelm Neumann (; ; born 5 October 1849 in Grevesmühlen – died 6 March 1919 in Riga) was a Baltic German architect and art historian. Neumann's family moved to Kreutzburg (then in Russian Empire) during Wilhelm's childhood. Whe ...

, purchased several of her

linocut Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of relief printing in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief printing, relief surface. A design i ...

s for its collection.''Rigaische Zeitung'' #65, 20 March 1909 In 1909, she received a scholarship from the City of Riga: established by

Georg Wilhelm Timm Georg Wilhelm Timm, russified as Vasily Fyodorovich Timm (; 21 June 1820 – 19 April 1895), was a Baltic German painter, lithographer and ceramic designer, known for his genre and battle scenes. He was also the publisher of the '. Biography ...

to help young artists. The money enabled her to study in Munich with Max Doerner and in

Dachau Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

with

Adolf Hölzel Adolf Richard Hölzel (13 May 1853 – 17 October 1934) was a German painter. He began as a Realist, but later became an early promoter of various Modern styles, including Abstractionism. Biography Hölzel was born in Olmütz. His father wa ...

. In 1910, she went to

Chiemsee Chiemsee () is a freshwater lake in Bavaria, Germany, near Rosenheim. It is often called "the Bavarian Sea". The rivers Tiroler Achen and Prien (river), Prien flow into the lake from the south, and the river Alz flows out towards the north. The ...

for lessons with

Julius Exter Julius Leopold Bernhard Exter (20 September 1863, Ludwigshafen - 16 October 1939, Übersee) was a German painter and sculptor. His work consists mostly of landscapes and portraits. Biography He was born to a family of merchants. His brother w ...

.Letter: Selma Des Coudres to Paul Campe, 5 January 1951. Herder-Institut Marburg, Dokumentensammlung DSHI 100 Campe 18a Bl. 291 Back in Munich, she made lifelong friends with

Joachim Ringelnatz Joachim Ringelnatz is the pen name of the German author and painter Hans Bötticher (7 August 1883 in Wurzen, Saxony – 17 November 1934 in Berlin). From 1894 to 1900 he lived with his family in the Gottschedstrasse 40 in Leipzig. Profile Hi ...

, who called her a "very gifted, poor painter". His autobiography was dedicated to her. Until 1914, she moved between Riga and Munich. During the war, she travelled extensively, giving exhibitions. Finally, in 1919, she decided to settle in Fürstenfeldbruck, which had been an artists' colony since 1900. It was there she met the painter,

Adolf Des Coudres Adolf Des Coudres (2 June 1862, Karlsruhe - 21 September 1924, Fürstenfeldbruck) was a German landscape painter. Biography The Des Coudres family originated in Switzerland. His father was Ludwig des Coudres, a painter and Professor at the Ac ...

, and they were married in 1921. They made a very notable pair, as she was twenty years younger than him and much taller. The marriage was short, however, as he died late in 1924. Adolf Des Coudres schlafend

Not long after his death, she and other local artists created the Kunstverein Fürstenfeldbruck. For a time, she served on the Board of Directors. Having lost most of her wealth due to the raging

hyperinflation In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real versus nominal value (economics), real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimiz ...

, she settled in a small cottage nearby. At that time, she began to concentrate on portraits and floral

still-life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or human-made (drinking glasses, books, ...

s; catering to provincial tastes in order to make a living. She died in 1956 and is buried next to her husband at the old cemetery in Emmering.

References

External links

Works, photographs and biography
@ the Des Coudres website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Des Coudres, Selma 1883 births 1956 deaths 20th-century German painters German landscape painters German Expressionist painters Latvian emigrants to Germany Artists from Riga 20th-century German women painters

Biography

References

Further reading

External links